Polymorph revisions

[Pielorinho]

I like! I may introduce these changes into my game -- polymorph as listed seems to have perfect forms and substandard forms, and your changes seem to ameliorate that problem.

Daniel

 

[Cheiromancer]

Alternatively, you could have a Polymorph be limited in the forms it can use.

It is analogous to the permanency spell: a number of spells have standard formulae to make permanent, others need to be researched separately, as if they were independent spells.

Perhaps the standard Polymorph includes a variety of small animals: bat, mouse, cat, sparrow and carp. Maybe you could even switch freely (1/round) between them.

But to get Polymorph Self: Umber Hulk, you need to research the form separately.

 

[nharwell]

Was it your intent that with Poly Self you can incorporate as many of those features as you want at once?

Yes. That is the primary reason why it's called "polymorph" (they really need to change the name of the spell currently in use -- maybe to "monomorph"?).

A related question is does your Poly Self allow one to assume the form of an abomination with a hodge-podge of features even if they don't belong together in any known creature (e.g. gills and wings)?

Yes, although I reserve the right to impose penalties (-1 or -2 to rolls) to extremely "weird" forms.

Also, the beginning of the description says you can take any corporeal form, but then the functionality is defined by your list. Does this mean that you can basically appear to be any sort of creature but have functionality as per the list?

So, for instance, if you wanted to turn into the most powerful creature possible that looks convincingly like a Troll (i.e. nothing missing, nothing taken away, from regular Troll-stuff), you'd get 1) large size; 2) Claws (rake for 1d6 damage); Darkvision (what's the range limit for your Poly?); no extra limbs (clearly not Troll-like); Fangs (bite for 1d6 damage); no fins or gills (not Troll-like); Low-light vision (no one can tell whether you have low-light vision by looking at you, and you might want to be able to see in color and twice the normal range); Natural armor (+4); no tail, no wings; right?

Exactly, but don't forget the stat modifications for assuming large size. For this version, that's the only way to change one's stats.

What are the ramifications of your Poly Self for Disguise? It would seem to me to be better than Alter Self, but not necessarily perfect. For instance, if you are mimicking a creature with claws, fangs, or natural armor, and your damage or armor bonus are lower than normal for the creature due to the maximum values on your list, or if you've chosen the values on the list even though the creature normally has values that are lower than them, that should detract from the disguise somewhat, right?

Another way of putting the question is, is the appearance of the form you can take limited in some way by the values on your list? Can you look like a creature with immense fangs even if they can only do 1d6 damage, so that they look really vicious but are not so bad, or does that actually limit how long or sharp they are?

My intent is that appearance is not affected by the limitations,just like the current polymorph still gives you an effective disguise despite not being able to mimic many abilities. So your "fang" example is accurate.

<By the way, I apologize for taking so long to respond. And I would email you MS Word versions of these rules, but your address doesn't appear in your profile>